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Friday, June 23, 2006

More rogue cops get away with assault due to police "code of silence"

There are beliefs that one comes to reluctantly because the evidence is overwhelming yet the truth is uncomfortable. One such belief is that an awful lot of police officers are merely uniformed thugs. My inclination was to support the police. And I have close relatives who work in law enforcement. So I also know there are decent people in the field. But cops stick together and cover up for the thugs. I know that as well.

To illustrate the point take the case of Frank Jude. Jude had meet a couple of women earlier in the evening, Kristin Antonissen and Katie Brown. The women invited him and a friend to go with them to a local bar. While there Antonissen got a call inviting her to a housewarming for a local police officer. And she took Jude along. She says that when they walked in they got very nasty looks from the guests who were mostly cops. She said everyone “just stopped what they were doing and looked at us. It was a very, very uncomfortable situation.” Oh, Jude and his friend are black. Antonissen and her friend are white.

Antonissen and her friend went to the toilet and when they were gone the cops acted very intimidatingly toward him. When the girls returned he told them what had happened and they thought it best to leave immediately. So they went out to the truck they arrived in to leave. As they tried to do this the off duty cops surrounded the truck claiming that a badge had been stolen.

Antonissen said that the solution was to call the police and was told: “We are the cops, you don’t need to call the cops.” One off duty officer bashed in the woman’s headlight. Brown got out to show them her purse had no badge in it. Another person demanded that Antonissen hand over the keys to her truck. She replied saying she was going to call 911 for help. One cop told her “Do it, and I’ll kick your ass.” She called anyway. On the recording made when she called she is heard saying that a mob of individuals claiming to be police officers were “going through our stuff right now. They’re claiming we stole their wallets and we did not.” If they had been thieves it is not likely they would be the ones calling the police.

Two men pulled Jude’s friend from the car and cut his face while using racial slurs. Jude was also pulled out and a mob of cops started beating him. Brown reported that the cops were “just punching and kicking this guy, just constantly yelling and screaming, ‘Where’s my badge, where’s my badge.’” The cops ripped Jude’s pants off of him and kicked him till he was a bloody mess.

Antonissen said: “I could actually see blood shooting up in the air. Frank’s whole head was covered in blood.” When the police car arrived they handcuffed Jude and helped beat him for “resisting arrest” (this is the catch all lie used by cops when they act like petty thugs.)

No charges were filed against Jude and after 20 minutes they drove him to the hospital. Doctors tried to find out what happened but he refused to say with the police present. For obvious reasons. When the police left he opened up and doctors took multiple photographs to document the viciousness of the beatings.

The official police report, that I would bet doughnuts is a concocted lie, said that Jude started the incident by “physically fight(ing) with... off duty officers” who were” attempting to restrain him until uniformed squads arrived.” Something that contradicts the recorded report that Antonissen gave to 911 when she called for help. The cops who were present didn’t want to talk about what happened. That is they refused to say which cops committed the assaults. Only after much pushing did one on duty officer, Joseph Schabel, admit that he witnessed three cops beating Jude.

So now we have a gang of rogue cops. We have two black men being attacked for no reason. We have two white women who witnessed the attacked and reported it. We have an on-duty cop admitting he saw the attack. So what happens when it goes to trial. The cops walk free!

The jurors said the case had been inadequately investigated by.... well, by the police of course. So the police did a shitty job investigating other police officers and so the thugs walk free in what should have been an open and shut case. The prosecutor said that the biggest problem was the the police officers, sworn to uphold the law, refused to tell anyone what they saw. In other words they refused to uphold the law and put their buddy ahead of their duty to uphold the law.

The whole thing hinges around the fact that up to a dozen criminals, I mean cops, beat this man. And only three were charged. Jurors said that with that many involved how could they know they had the right ones. Maybe it was another cop. In my view they are all guilty and all of them should have been prosecuted.

Police officer after police officer, who attended the party and surrounded the truck, claimed that they never saw any beating. These “officers” also refused to speak to investigators. Jurors said it was obvious that the officers were liars and and hiding facts but felt their hands were tied because of it. The cops were were acquitted because their friends lied for them were Jon Bartlett, Daniel Masarik and Andrew Spengler. If you are Milwaukee don't call the cops for help and if you run into these acquitted (sic) criminals run in the opposite direction.